Who Do You Think You Are? Series 13 Review, Part 1

Despite having to wait much longer than hoped for, the BBC finally revealed that Series 13 would start in late November 2016, 3 months later than what was expected. In this article, I will write a review of the first part of the series, similar to last year's series 12 reviews using the same star system as before. This may be interesting to see which series on average, 12 or 13, I preferred.

The series kicked of with Danny Dyer, who's episode now seems like a long time ago, researching his family tree and a previously unknown connection to royalty as well as poverty. He actually took part in some of the research; which from a family history perspective is very nice to see and seemed naturally interested in all of his ancestors as well. We went from his 3x great grandmother, inadvertently killing her illegitimate daughter and ending up in the workhouse to Thomas Cromwell, his 15x great grandfather and even further back to his 22x great grandfather, King Edward III. Having such a variety is probably what made this episode interesting - even to non family historians. ★★★★☆

A week later, it was Amanda Holden's turn to research her family tree. She started off with a family tree, her mother had given to her, going back to her 5x great grandfather Collin Thomas who was imprisoned after joining the marines as he was still an apprentice to a shoemaker. He later appeared in France during the peninsula war where he met his love and deserted the army. We also saw Amanda find out about other ancestors, including her grandfather her committed suicide. Although Amanda seemed fairly interested she did not research herself unfortunately but was still an interesting episode. ★★★☆☆

Next up was Liz Bonnin who researched her Caribbean ancestors. It was interesting to see research in other countries and she researched in the 'correct' way of going upwards after finding out about the generation below - rather than some celebrities being given an ancestor and working downwards. She was descended from French plantation owners and her great great grandfather was an Indian born businessman. ★★★★☆

We then watched Cheryl trace her maritime ancestors. Her 4x great grandfather, John Wood Laing, his rise to be a master mariner and his brother James who seemed quite troublesome. Sadly, they both lost their lives on La Belle on it's way back home from Canada. She seemed genuine in her reactions and her episode was quite friendly. One thing that did irk me however, was when she folded that delicate ticket! ★★★★☆

The final episode before the unneeded mid-series break was Ricky Tomlinson's. In this episode we saw Ricky trace his carter ancestors through their hard lives. Many of Ricky's family died young, including many children. I liked how he wanted to know more about his ancestors and specifically the illegal post-mortem. However, he acted a bit individual about his ancestors and that his ancestors were the only ones to live like that even though most Brits would have had similar lives. ★★☆☆☆

We then had a long gap before the next set of episodes which will be reviewed next week. If you enjoyed watching this series of WDYTYA why not comment below your opinions?